Shit happens

So.... I'm a dad now. Have been for 6 weeks. It's flying by. Turns out it isn't full time work that makes time go quickly; it's just life.

I don't remember too much about how I've been feeling over the days since Myla arrived in the world, which was why I was wanting to reinvigorate the blog so I can capture it. I'm off work on Shared Parental Leave, which in my pre-delivery mind meant I'd have ...

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That worked then...

Seems the app works then,  as long as I stick to text in my posts. I spent a decent amount of time crafting a post very early this morning, only for it to crash when I attempted to add a photo. The post in general is now stuck in blog purgatory, in uneditable draft form, and I can't publish it as the photo "can't be found". I can't delete the photo from the post either as it causes the ...

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Test

Attempting to post from the Blogger app, which seems buggy as hell to say the least. Bit rich for me to rock up after nearly two years and start moaning about the state of Blogger I suppose.

Running and Writing.

pretty much every post since around 2011 has been me going "oh, look how long it's been since my last post...gonna start blogging again....posterity.....zzzzzzz".

None of that shit this time round (except for what I've just written). I made it through the whole of 2013 - some may say the most momentous year of my life to date - without so much as a letter typed, so all bets and expectations are ...

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7th post in a year, I bet you think you're pretty clever, don't ya boy?

So it's finally come to this. Six posts since this time last year. One every two months on average.

In truth, the only reason I'm back here is because some auto-spambot has been posting comments under my most recent (e.g, written last March) post and, faced with emails telling me that the twentieth attempt to do so in a couple of days had just taken place, I started to get increasingly ...

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Reading Half Marathon

Two years ago as part of the attempted fund-raising build up for the Mongolia Charity Rally, I took part in the Reading Half Marathon. In all honesty, I'd entered because my mates were, rather than as a deliberate attempt to get sponsorship - just as well, really, as I think I attracted naff all as a direct result of my hour and 56 minutes of effort.

For reasons lost to the mists of time, but ...

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first 10k of the year coming up...

...and my body's in shocking shape. It would appear that my smoke free lungs have enabled me to run like the wind without noticing - with the result that my knee and foot have both capitulated under the pressure.

I'm annoyed and frustrated; have been training since the beginning of January and anything more than a slow jog causes my knee to scream in pain. My foot joined in for good measure last ...

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Smoke signals

Well, I've done it. Barring any catastrophes between now and around 11am tomorrow morning, I will have gone a full month without booze. Well done me.

I do actually feel a bit healthier today - typical. There's an extremely strong chance that I will dive headlong back into the world of alcohol consumption on Friday evening, thus ensuring I'm back in the land of hangovers by Saturday morning. To ...

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Welcome to a new year

And trust it finds us all in fine fettle?

Big news here is that I'm nearing the end of Day 20 of no alcohol after an impetuous (some would say rash / foolhardy / deranged) decision to have a month off the plonk after New Year.

It's led to being inevitably lumped in with the annual January abstainers and meant I've been subjected to numerous rants outlining the health risks of stopping and then ...

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Inspiration & nostalgia

Well done to my old uni mate Gav, with whom I ran the Scotland Run 10K whilst in New York back in April, for completing the New York marathon last Sunday in a superb time of 4hrs 5 mins.

The wonders of modern technology meant I was able to follow his progress around the route and get updates on his lap times - whilst slumped on the sofa in a hungover fug after the Lambeth fireworks display in ...

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Autumn's here...

...and the wind is buffeting my spare room curtains, thanks to the thoughtful air vent that a former resident / landlord thought might be a useful feature in a bedroom window. No way of closing it, so if you're thinking of coming and spending a weekend as my house guest, probably best to hold off until spring.

Another month-long gap between posts suggests that life has once again been too busy ...

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Bestival

Ideally, I'd like to say I'm now fully recovered from the glorious weekend that was Bestival 2011, but given I'm nursing a hangover after meeting my friend Helen for 'a pint' to return her tent, and was wearing my Bestival hoodie during the 3 hours in the pub, I'm blaming the festival for my current state of distress.

Just as well, then, that I don't have to get up at 3am tomorrow to catch a ...

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Katarzyna Pilarska Photography: Głowa w chmurach, serce na dłoni i Londyn analogow...

We'd the pleasure of welcoming our second guests to the flat (not bad for over a year of living here) last weekend - J's cousin Kasia and her husband.

She's posted her pictures of the trip on her blog - including some taken in Brixton Village and in our neighbourhood. In particular, she has captured our rocking chair (I say 'our'; it's on loan from a friend) in a way I could only dream of seeing, never mind capturing.

Katarzyna Pilarska Photography: Głowa w chmurach, serce na dłoni i Londyn analogow...: Jakże niewiarygodne jest to, że w dzisiejszych czasach człowiek jednego dnia spędza popołudnie w Londyńskim Chinatown, a drugiego dziarsko m...

Trains

Am standing in City Thameslink as I write (the wonders of moderner technology), perusing my preference for overland trains rather than the underground. Had I taken the tube from St Pauls, I'd be relatively hurtling towards Oxford Circus right now, rather than attempting to ignore the couple of pints of IPA that are slowly working their way to their exit point.

But then I'd be squashed in a hot ...

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Hits on the blog (hits on the blog y'all)

That post title sounds better if you lazily croon it in the style of mid-90s ganja-toking hip hop legends, Cypress Hill. Which is fitting, as I've been experiencing another mini peak in visits to the blog, once again due to a post about music. Or music festivals, in any case.

Last time it was because of Supajam and their free Feis tickets - something I don't really want to be reminded of for the ...

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Bestival - my Mr Spoon outfit

Bestival - my Mr Spoon outfit, originally uploaded by tattie_chomper.

it didn't quite work out how I planned in 2009 - when the theme was "Space". It became known as "Pritstickgate", as the forgetting of the eponymous white stick, combined with the mother of all hangovers after a 5am finish the night before, sank me into parcel-taping misery - much to the amusement of my fellow festival-ers.

Wouldn't half mind the weather to be the same this year as back then though.

Steppe By Steppe: Mike & the art of Kangoo maintenance

I've finally got round to putting a new post up on Steppe By Steppe - waxing semi-lyrically (and at length) about our crash course in 'not grinding to a halt somewhere outside Antwerp'. Click on the funky red link to be whisked magically across the ether to my other blog.

Steppe By Steppe: Mike & the art of Kangoo maintenance: Apart from enthusiasm, we didn't have too much in the way of qualifications to suggest it was wise to drive a quarter of the way 'round the ...

Further efforts to deal with the endemic dog poo problem

Further efforts to deal with the endemic dog poo problem, originally uploaded by tattie_chomper.

we didn't see any dog poo on the beach whilst we were there - no doubt due entirely to these genius public health signs

A fishing boat returns to port

A fishing boat returns to port, originally uploaded by tattie_chomper.

Watching a local boat return to harbour on our final morning

Trouville restaurants

Trouville restaurants, originally uploaded by tattie_chomper.

The main strip of bistros & brasseries after sundown